Amazon Shuts Down Man’s “Entire” Smart Home

Earlier this month, Amazon locked a man out of his account, disrupting his extensive smart home system. The suspension was driven by a delivery driver who claimed the man used a racial slur through his automated doorbell system. The only problem is that the man captured the entire interaction on his security system — the communication to the worker was an automated greeting of, “Excuse me, can I help you?”

In a post to Medium, Brandon Jackson outlined how his smart home system was disrupted by a week-long lockout from his Amazon account. Jackson unexpectedly found himself locked out of his Amazon account for nearly a week, rendering his Amazon Echo devices unresponsive, in an incident that highlights the potential flaws in smart home systems. A “miscommunication” between a delivery driver and an automated doorbell message led to the lockout.